Riders rule
Three teams from the CC Riders soccer club captured medals — a gold and two bronze — during provincial finals play over the weekend.
The CC Riders Soccer Club’s under-15 boys A teams captured the gold medal at the Soccer Nova Scotia Provincial Championship in Bedford on the weekend.
It was one of three medal performances for the club as the Riders also took bronze in the U-13 A and U-15 A girls divisions.
The Riders went undefeated through four games to win the U-15 boys A title, capping their run Sunday with a 4-2 victory over Bedford in the gold medal matchup.
Braden Gray led the attack for the Riders, scoring three of their goals while Payne Thompson added a single. Ethan Thomson scored both goals for Bedford.
The three games that got the Riders to the championship match were all one-goal decisions.
The Riders earned their way to the gold medal by narrowly defeating the Storm 4-3 in the qualifying game. Samuel Archibald, Mason Earle, Jaden Storry-Trefry and Jacob Stewart all scored for the Riders. Replying for the Storm were Woody Bain, Noah Jordan and Elias Toulany.
Saturday the Riders opened the weekend with a 3-2 win over Cole Harbour Eastern Passage.
Gray, Matthew Jones and Jack Lewis all found the mark for the Riders, while Tyler Mitchell and Benjamin Veinot replied for CHEP.
Their next outing saw the Riders shade Bedford 2-1 on a pair of goals by Gray. Nebeyu Abay had the lone Bedford tally.
U-15 Girls A Bronze Medal Game
CC Riders 2 Whitney Pier 1
(at Dartmouth) Georgia Bailey and Annika Thompson scored to help the CC Riders capture bronze with their 2-1 decision over Whitney Pier Sunday. Madison Corbett had the lone reply for Whitney Pier.
The Riders lost earlier in the day 3-1 to Sackville United, with the loss sending them to the bronze medal game. Thompson had the lone goal for the Riders.
Sackville went on to capture the gold medal, with a 2-1 win over Dartmouth United.
In preliminary play, the Riders opened the weekend with a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Dartmouth United.
They rebounded for a 4-1 victory over East Hants. Thompson scored twice and Jasmin Atkinson and Mia Perry added singles for the Riders.
Haylie MacDonald has the lone goal for East Hants.
U-13 Girls A Bronze Medal Game CC Riders 2 Bedford 0 (at Truro)
The CC Riders claimed the bronze medal in the U-13 girls A division championship 2-0 over Bedford Sunday. Chloe Hart and Jaclyn Sherry scored for the Riders, who narrowly missed a shot at the gold medal.
In an earlier game Sunday, the Riders and Antigonish Celtics waged a back-and-forth battle late into the contest, with Antigonish finally breaking the deadlock on a goal by Emily MacDonald. The goal came in the final few minutes of play as Antigonish took the 1-0 decision to earn a berth in the gold medal game, while the Riders went to the bronze medal matchup.
The Celtics lost in the gold medal game, 2-1 to SSC Selects.
The Riders split their pool games on Saturday. In their opener, they downed Cole Harbour Eastern Passage 3-0 as Chloe Lindsay scored a pair of goals and Lienna Storry-Trefry added a single.
In their second outing, they lost a narrow 1-0 decision to Bedford.
U-13 Boys A Bronze Medal Game Storm 4 CC Riders 0 (at Cole Harbour)
The U-13 Boys A bronze medal final had the CC Riders losing 4-0 to the Storm.
Cole Harbour Eastern Passage captured the gold, defeating Bedford 1-0 in the final.
The Riders opened the weekend with a 2-1 victory over Halifax Dunbrack. Philip Ballard and Thomas Horsburgh accounted for the Riders’ scoring.
In their next game, CC Riders dropped a 5-2 decision to the Storm. Quinn Hayden accounted for one of the Riders’ goals, while the other was an own goal by the Storm.
In the gold-medal qualifying game, the Riders dropped a 4-0 decision to Cole Harbour Eastern Passage, sending them to the bronze medal contest.